Cannot get nitrites down

Thank

Thank you. I have the API separate tests for nitrite and ammonia but not PH

I would also get one for gh kh and nitrate

 

Just tested again and I'd say it's approximately 1.5. I find it so hard to match the colour to the chart!

 

Just tested again and I'd say it's approximately 1.5. I find it so hard to match the colour to the chart!

Enough to know need to keep changing...

 

Well, it's not zero. Or close to zero. So, keep changing the water.

 

Is everyone just telling the op to bring Nitrites down to 0? Okay, but what got the OP there in the first place? It's going to happen again, assuming there is no bacteria to control nitrites. Or was this all about nitrates? I can't figure it out...........................

 

Is everyone just telling the op to bring Nitrites down to 0? Okay, but what got the OP there in the first place? It's going to happen again, assuming there is no bacteria to control nitrites. Or was this all about nitrates? I can't figure it out...........................

There might be time to troubleshoot the problem, after the levels are low, and the fish are no longer dying.

 

Is everyone just telling the op to bring Nitrites down to 0? Okay, but what got the OP there in the first place? It's going to happen again, assuming there is no bacteria to control nitrites. Or was this all about nitrates? I can't figure it out...........................

Could have been many things such as not changing the water frequently enough, or cleaning their filter amd throwing off their cycle, or never being cycled.

It's about nirtites. The OP originally stated nitrates by accident which confused us all

 

That is a really overarching statement that doesn't look at the specific needs of most tropical fish that we have in our closed system aquaria.
I can guarantee that if I let my nitrates rise to 150 in my discus tank they will succumb to illness ( most likely bacteria that they would normal be able to combat) in a very short time.Nitrates this high for South American fish would be lethal. Cichlids, tetras, corydoras, angelfish--- some of our most popular fish in the hobby could not take the high nitrates you or, for that matter, the UC Davis veterinarian say are fine. The fish wouldn't die right away, but, through stress from the nitrates, will die from opportunistic infections/

I had discus I did 2 water changes a week every week and keep my filter and everything clean my water conditions were perfect. I added a 10 inch common pleco and 3 discus died within 3 days. Fish are all different!

 

Is everyone just telling the op to bring Nitrites down to 0? Okay, but what got the OP there in the first place? It's going to happen again, assuming there is no bacteria to control nitrites. Or was this all about nitrates? I can't figure it out...........................[/QUOTE

How it happened in the first place was considered in an earlier post:

I would start out by testing your tap first of all.

Nitrate levels are determined by the bio-load of your system: how much you feed, how many fish in the system, and how often you take those nitrates out as they accumulate.
Look at these factors:

Take out Nitrates---Water Changes: buy a water test kit if you don't have one or, if you do, test water weekly and change water as often as needed to keep nitrates under 20ppm . ( this may mean you need to do several water changes back to back throughout week.) Are you routinely cleaning , maintenancing filter, etc...

Bio-load- as fish get bigger they eat more and bio-load increases on your system.
How many fish do you have in relation to tank size? Do you have enough biological media in your filter?

 

I had high nitrites for like 4+ weeks ! I’d been doing almost daily large water changes and my fish are fine

Eventually I bought tss+ And it definitely helped drop the nitrites to 0 within 2 weeks

 

I just can't figure out what caused the nitrites to spike like this either. But something obviously did. All was fine until I did a water change, and although I don't feel I did anything different, something has obviously caused it, so I must have. I cleaned one of the two sponge filters in the water I took out as usual, and I also added another filter as I am beginning to set up a larger tank so thought it would be a good idea to get some bacteria in it to put in the new tank whilst it cycles. But apart from that all was done the same.
My tank is over a year on and was properly cycled, and like I said I've never had this before.

 

You might want to add Seachem Stability as well as Prime. When you treated for fin rot you may have killed your cycle. (What did you use? There are fin rot treatments that don't do much damage to your beneficial bacteria.)

 

Studies have shown that Amquel/Prime don't actually detoxify nitrite or nitrate.

Where did you read this? Prime got me through nitrite spikes during my first fish-in cycle a couple years ago (I've since learned this is a bad method) so I'm reluctant to believe this. The relief for my fish is visible and instant. Please send a link if possible.

 

You might want to add Seachem Stability as well as Prime. When you treated for fin rot you may have killed your cycle. (What did you use? There are fin rot treatments that don't do much damage to your beneficial bacteria.)

Hi, I used interpet antI fungus and fin rot. I have used this before.

Just tested again and now at 1 so doing second water change of day

 

Just tested again and now at 1 so doing second water change of day

That's great! Keep at it and soon it'll be down to a managable level. Maybe they were working on your water line which could have caused a temp spike in ammonia.

 

Thank you all for your help and support. The fish are now swimming around the tank and I'm hoping after this latest water change the level will have dropped below one. I will keep you updated.

 

Hey, I had huge spikes in my stuff not that long ago so I understand I did back to back water changes until I brought my levels down to .25 or 0. Literally, a 75%, a 50%, another 50%, etc. Dose Prime and some BB!

 

Where did you read this? Prime got me through nitrite spikes during my first fish-in cycle a couple years ago (I've since learned this is a bad method) so I'm reluctant to believe this. The relief for my fish is visible and instant. Please send a link if possible.

 

Seachem doesn't claim that Prime removes Nitrites- quite the contrary. They say it detoxifies them, converting them to a form that's bio-available to beneficial bacteria, but not toxic to fish. Kordon seems to make the same claim about AmQuel+. The document you found has apparently been removed from AquaScienceResearch's website because for some reason it has to be retrieved from a nearly ten year old crawl of it, and when you read it, they say they tested to see if Amquel+ removes nitrites and nitrates. That testing shows it doesn't is no surprise as that's not the claim.

My experience is only with Prime. I had a fish in a tank with high nitrites- above .5. The fish was symptomatic. I added Prime at 3x the dechlorination dose. The fish stopped being symptomatic. If that was all in my head (or the fish's ) I'll take it.

 

It doesn't say anything about Prime.

Does Amquel + claim that it removes nitrites/nitrates, or that it protects fish from its effects?

 

Adding a bit of aquarium salt can help prevent nitrite poisoning

Frequently asked questions on nitrite

 

We should probably take this discussion to another thread, as we are getting away from OP's topic a decent amount.

 

Levels have been 0 for last couple of days. Thankyou everyone

 

WEEK 5: Ammonia at 0
Nitrite: 5+ ppm
Nitrate:40 ppm
Been changing water, using primed even tried nitro sorb abs that doesn’t make anything budge. This nitrite spike WILL NOT END. I am going on vaca tomorrow and won’t be around for a week. WHAT DO I DO?????????
I have never experienced such a long nitrite spike 4-5 WEEKS!

 

Mine was a bit long too, really the best thing to do is wait it out from what I can gather. A vacation might actually be what you need assuming this is a fishless cycle.

 

Mine was a bit long too, really the best thing to do is wait it out from what I can gather. A vacation might actually be what you need assuming this is a fishless cycle.

It’s fish in, have about 10 fish in a 20 gallon

 

It’s fish in, have about 10 fish in a 20 gallon

Alright, what is it stocked with? Depending on what's in there, some things might have higher bioloads, thus producing more ammonia, thus making more nitrite.

 

Do you use any aeration in your tank?

The nitrogen cycle needs oxigen. The cycle can be reversed in an anaerobic cluster.

 

Do you use any aeration in your tank?

The nitrogen cycle needs oxigen. The cycle can be reversed in an anaerobic cluster.

Just a filter, but that provides plenty of bubbles.

Just a filter, but that provides plenty of bubbles.

So far everyone says a different things, guessing around cluelessly. Not one person can give me a straight answer on something g as simple as a FISH CYCLE SMH.

Alright, what is it stocked with? Depending on what's in there, some things might have higher bioloads, thus producing more ammonia, thus making more nitrite.

Some tetras
Rams
Corys
Danios
Mollys

 

WEEK 5: Ammonia at 0
Nitrite: 5+ ppm
Nitrate:40 ppm
Been changing water, using primed even tried nitro sorb abs that doesn’t make anything budge. This nitrite spike WILL NOT END. I am going on vaca tomorrow and won’t be around for a week. WHAT DO I DO?????????
I have never experienced such a long nitrite spike 4-5 WEEKS!

You change 50% of your water now, and another 50% tonight, and 50% more tomorrow am before you leave. Salt the tank (1tbsp/gal) before you leave and hope not being fed, and the salt keep your fish safe while you are gone.

 

If it was simple, you wouldn't be asking.

Do as LowConductivity says and then do small daily water changes when you return to keep the nitrates lower.

When you clean your tank/do water changes do you also siphon the substrate? Or move the decor around a lot?
Could be the tank is cycled but the amount of waste your fish are producing and food that's not being eaten is causing the nitrates to be high. I'm not sure what you have in your tank, but different species/sizes of fish produce different amounts of waste and that could be the cause of it.

You could test your water source/tap water and see if that's it, but I doubt it would be that.

 

WEEK 5: Ammonia at 0
Nitrite: 5+ ppm
Nitrate:40 ppm
Been changing water, using primed even tried nitro sorb abs that doesn’t make anything budge. This nitrite spike WILL NOT END. I am going on vaca tomorrow and won’t be around for a week. WHAT DO I DO?????????
I have never experienced such a long nitrite spike 4-5 WEEKS!

Do the water changes lower the nitrites at all? A 4 or 5 week off the chart nitrite spike is unusual. The only other time I have seen it happen was to a young lady I was helping a couple of years ago. 100% water changes would get them down but within a few hours they spiked back up off the chart. We worked on the issue for a couple of weeks. She was doing everything right but couldn't stop the nitrites rising.

We finally determined it was the aquarium decor she had in her tank causing it. Once the 2 pieces were removed the nitrites were gone. Although both pieces were supposed to be tank safe apparently they were leaching something into the water and causing what she was experiencing. Another young lady was seeing her ammonia spiking when it shouldn't have been happening. Again removing the decor solved the issue. Is something like that possible here?

 

Do the water changes lower the nitrites at all? A 4 or 5 week off the chart nitrite spike is unusual. The only other time I have seen it happen was to a young lady I was helping a couple of years ago. 100% water changes would get them down but within a few hours they spiked back up off the chart. We worked on the issue for a couple of weeks. She was doing everything right but couldn't stop the nitrites rising.

We finally determined it was the aquarium decor she had in her tank causing it. Once the 2 pieces were removed the nitrites were gone. Although both pieces were supposed to be tank safe apparently they were leaching something into the water and causing what she was experiencing. Another young lady was seeing her ammonia spiking when it shouldn't have been happening. Again removing the decor solved the issue. Is something like that possible here?

Water changes drop the nitrites but they go right back up overnight. My ammonia has been zero this entire time. I have a large aquarium piece from petco so idk.

 

Water changes drop the nitrites but they go right back up overnight. My ammonia has been zero this entire time. I have a large aquarium piece from petco so idk.

How difficult would it be to take the piece out of there? I don't know that it is causing what is happening but the only way we are going to know is to remove it. The other decor pieces were sold as made for an aquarium but for some reason they caused problems. I have to think some of the folks that make these pieces don't pay close enough attention to what they make them with.

 

How difficult would it be to take the piece out of there? I don't know that it is causing what is happening but the only way we are going to know is to remove it. The other decor pieces were sold as made for an aquarium but for some reason they caused problems. I have to think some of the folks that make these pieces don't pay close enough attention to what they make them with.

I can try that. I’ll do a 40 water change and remove the piece and see if it goes back up in the morning. I’ll update you tomorrow. Thx

 

First step of nitrification is working: you have zero ammonia in your water and nitrite ist rising. The first step is done by nitrosomas bacteria.

Second step is not working. This should be done by nitrobacter bacteria. Nitrobacter has an optimal growth on a ph between 7 and 8. Although not toxic, a nitrate level of 40mg/l may be a bit high.

Oxigen level seems ok.

Whats your PH? lower than 6? This might inhibit fast growth of nitrobacter.

Do you have living plants in your tank? They will eat ammonia, nitrite and nitrate, preferring ammonia and nitrite. Elodea will do wonder. Even duckweed will help.

Do you use additives that prevent algae or bacteria bloom? Stop using it. Algae might be your friend. It works like a plant.

To many waterchanges might be part of the problem. A WC disturbes bacteria growth and adds additives with the tap water.

All that is only a good guess. Analysing water is test, smell, feel and taste.

 

How difficult would it be to take the piece out of there? I don't know that it is causing what is happening but the only way we are going to know is to remove it. The other decor pieces were sold as made for an aquarium but for some reason they caused problems. I have to think some of the folks that make these pieces don't pay close enough attention to what they make them with.

This is where we’re at. It’s not as high as it usually is, but it still went right back up. I’ll do another water change today and tonight.

 

A little background please. I just read back and see you have fish in this tank. How often have you been doing water changes since this spike started? Had they been done daily this spike may have ended but I can't guarantee it would have happened. Each tank is different so what works for one won't necessarily work the same in another. That is my normal advice though.

Since the nitrites still went up with the piece removed we can probably rule it out as the cause of what is happening. To be perfectly honest I do have to wonder. If your nitrites have been this high for 4 or 5 weeks and your fish don't seem to be affected I have to wonder if your nitrite test is telling you the truth. Do you have any other way of getting them tested? As I am sure you are aware, it is highly unusual for the nitrite spike to last this long.

 

A little background please. I just read back and see you have fish in this tank. How often have you been doing water changes since this spike started? Had they been done daily this spike may have ended but I can't guarantee it would have happened. Each tank is different so what works for one won't necessarily work the same in another. That is my normal advice though.

Since the nitrites still went up with the piece removed we can probably rule it out as the cause of what is happening. To be perfectly honest I do have to wonder. If your nitrites have been this high for 4 or 5 weeks and your fish don't seem to be affected I have to wonder if your nitrite test is telling you the truth. Do you have any other way of getting them tested? As I am sure you are aware, it is highly unusual for the nitrite spike to last this long.

I do water changes frequently about once every couple days. And at a point every day for a week. I use prime, and salt as well. My tests are definitely accurate ( I use API MTK) a smaller cycled tank I had reads bright blue for nitrites but this one totally not. This aquarium stuff sucks. Why do I have to be the only one with some weird problem. All the money and time I put into this down the drain. I’m flushing my fish and draining my tank.

 

WEEK 5: Ammonia at 0
Nitrite: 5+ ppm
Nitrate:40 ppm
Been changing water, using primed even tried nitro sorb abs that doesn’t make anything budge. This nitrite spike WILL NOT END. I am going on vaca tomorrow and won’t be around for a week. WHAT DO I DO?????????
I have never experienced such a long nitrite spike 4-5 WEEKS!

Add to your filter seachem purigen that product will absorb organic waste and will reduce your Nitrates with 24h mate